WiMAX and 3G to Be Complimentary in India

In days to come the Indian telecommunications services providers will witness much better and enhanced services said Mr R.N. Prabhakar, Member, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). He was speaking at the opening of the WiMAX India conference.

“In the Indian context the most essential thing is to make such services affordable to a wider section of the public at a reasonable cost. The next phase of expansion of mobile services was in the rural areas. Telecom policies should encourage service providers to push more and more into the interior of the country and develop business models for the rural service," continued Mr Prabhakar.

Delivering the key note address at the Conference Mr. Soumitra Sana, India President, Motorola stressed upon the fact that the WiMAX is changing the way the telecommunications industry is looking at connecting people. “It is placing the world on the threshold of a total transformation in communications," he said. During this event Motorola also displayed its WiMAX Forum certified base station and different types of CPEs.

During the proceeding of the Conference it was felt that the emerging telecom markets like India were adopting WiMAX technology across the entire spectrum of operator profiles like Telecom service operators, cable operators, 2G, 3G and even new entrants. With the economies moving towards mobile broadband using all Internet Protocol access strategy. WiMAX is the next step.

While WiMAX and 3G would be playing complimentary roles, it was felt that besides the cost of the service, the quality of the service too is an important factor.

“Today accessing internet in India is as high as US$10.5, which has checked the internet penetration level to just 5.3 per cent inhabitants. More internet users are being added every year on mobile than the cumulative wired base," said Mr. Jagbir Singh, Group CTO - Mobility, Bharti Airtel Limited. With the obvious benefits from wireless broadband in terms of costs, reliability, easy access etc., the recent WiMAX and 3G policies would help the rapid spread of wireless broadband into the interior of the country, Mr Singh further added.

Assuring that WiMAX would be an “extremely good experience", WiMAX India Forum president Mr. C.S. Rao said that his organization would have appreciated if the government had considered 30 MGz per operator in 10 mgz per channel. He forecast that costs of PCs and other customer end devices would come down further. “Already PC is aviliable in the range of Rs15-20,000 and in the near future it is expected to come down further," he said. In Taiwan WiMAX enabled notebooks were being sold for just 399 dollars a piece.

While praising the BSNL that in realizing the rural push as it had the maximum reach in the country, Mr Rao further added that with the recent Government initiatives rural wireless broadband would become a reality.

Rapid spread of WiMAX to provide broadband to the entire country was the theme of several other telecom experts at the conference.

Posted to the site on 25th August 2008